Exhibits from St. Petersburg Zoological Museum on display in Helsinki

Exhibits from the St. Petersburg Zoological Museum are on display in the Finnish capital since Friday, the highlight of the exposition being a mummy of a mammoth calf called Dima, who died around 39,000 years ago and was discovered in Siberia in 1977, and his "sister," the 3 to 4-week-old Masha, found in Northeastern Siberia in 1988.

The opening of a Russian exhibition seemed to rouse Finns' interest in mammoths. Finland's Central Museum of Natural History, for instance, published a contact number that can be used until early September to report possible mammoth discoveries. Specialists say such discoveries are quite possible on the Finnish territory, especially in areas that used to be the sea floor. Construction works, drainage of fields and other such occasions can really lead to discovery of unusual objects, such as mammoth's molars or tusks, less frequently mammoth bones.

The museum staff recommends anyone, who comes across a mammoth, to take a picture or make a drawing of the find and report it to specialists without touching it. In fact, Finland has long been contemplating a large-scale campaign in search of mammoth remains, but it has only now decided to launch it.

Exhibits from the St. Petersburg Zoological Museum are on display until September 7.